This work focuses on the potential consequences of institutional participatory processes in the
interaction between civil society and the local government. Our aim is to offer a proposal for
the analysis and the operationalization of such effects in the relation of local authorities with
the society: do public participatory processes produce any change as they promise from a
normative point of view? First, we specified and cluster the potential changes (both structural
and cultural) in the interaction and offer an analytical proposal for the analysis under three
hypotheses (the hypothesis of the coral reef effect, the civil society empowerment and the
shift power relations). Second, we show first (and partial) results of an ongoing research
carried out in three Spanish regions and based on six case-studies where, through the use of
semi-structured interviews with different actors, we observe actual patterns of change in the
interaction between civil society and local authorities.